I was even hoping for a podium finish – Alonso

Fernando Alonso drove a hard and determined race to finish the Singapore Grand Prix in seventh position. The Spaniard, who had started ninth, made a brilliant start, and was able to hold on to fifth position for much of the race until falling into the clutches of Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen in the closing stages.

Nonetheless, he was ‘best of the rest’ this evening: the next car home after the two Mercedes, the two Red Bulls and the two Ferraris. His was an impressive performance.

“Seventh was the maximum we could achieve today – the best of the rest after the two Mercedes, the two Red Bulls and the two Ferraris. We weren’t perhaps quite the fourth-fastest team here this weekend, so it’s thanks to good strategy and a good start that we were able to bring home this result. Alonso said

“I chose to go on the outside at the start, and the crash didn’t affect me as I was already up into sixth at that point. Then I braked very late for the first corner and got past Daniil [Kvyat] and Kimi [Raikkonen]. Everything went fine – sometimes you just need to get lucky.

“For a time, I was even hoping for a podium finish – if something had happened ahead of me it could have worked out that way – but in fact it was one of those races in which nothing happened at the front.